Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Unexpected Michael T. Gilbert

It's not always a matter of hard-nosed sleuthing. Sometimes a gumshoe just gets lucky. This is one of those times.

Michael T. Gilbert--famous comic artist, writer, historian, creator of Mr. Monster, and all-around swell guy--has gifted me with an unseen story pulled from his own personal files. Being the good buddy that he is, Michael T. is allowing me to share that story with you!

"Ken: I was recently going through my files and found color roughs for an unpublished Superman story I wrote and drew. The full story behind the story is below, along with scans. I think you'll find it amusing!"
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In 1997 DC wanted to revive Tales of the Unexpected. Their idea was to do EC style stories featuring the DC superheroes. Naturally it was right up my alley, and I got the OK to write and draw (and color) "Second Story Man!"

I used a hunk of Kryptonite named Mort to tell my story. I figured it would work as a play on the French word for Death, as well as a tip of the hat to good ol' Mort Weisinger---the editor who popularized so many forms of Kryptonite.

There were some kind of convoluted legal problems with the book (don't ask!), and the whole project was scrapped. My story never appeared, and probably never will. But here's scans of my color roughs so you can enjoy it.

I tried to imitate the old EC Leroy lettering here, and I made the story the standard 7 page length of an EC story too.

I did this just before my "Mann & Superman!" Superman graphic novel which came out in 2000, so it's my first Superman story.

No, I understand that the anthology for which this story never got published, Ken. I was making a perhaps too-obscure reference to the library in Dylan Horrocks' Hicksville and Atlas. I apologize for any confusion. 8^)